Burying the dead is a corporal work of mercy…so I was curious why it seemed no Catholic cemetery had offered to bury Tamerlan.

When I looked into it, I found Catholic cemeteries are only available for those baptized into the Christian faith. I also found out that notorious sinners who die before expressing remorse for their crimes are similarly barred from burial in a Catholic cemetery.

I was still curious, so I contacted a canon lawyer who told me that a bishop could actually give permission for a non-baptized person to be buried in a Catholic cemetery. So, the issue with burying Tamerlan likely had less to do with canon law and more to do with practicality. The canon lawyer told me his first consideration was the danger of Tamerlan’s grave becoming a sort of shrine that would disturb the peace of the cemetery.

“It’s not so much the burial of this individual, but the effect of the burial on the cemetery…if it were to become some sort of shrine or attract undue attention,” he said.

In other words,

“The burial of the dead is a Christian virtue and an obligation. On the other hand, you don’t want to foster undue attention on an individual who caused so much pain and suffering.”

Kate Veik

Kate Veik is a radio and television producer for Catholic News Agency and EWTN News. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her work has previously appeared in the Omaha World-Herald and the Archdiocese of Omaha’s newspaper, the Catholic Voice.